Natural wood-covered plastic part such as a vehicle part and method of manufacturing same

Abstract

A natural wood-covered plastic part, such as a vehicle part, and a method of manufacturing same. The natural wood-covered plastic part includes a one-piece thermoplastic elastomeric body or structural substrate and a plastic-wood composite of a thermoplastic material compatible with the thermoplastic elastomer of the structural substrate. The plastic-wood composite and the plastic part are placed together at a bonding station. A bottom contact surface of the plastic-wood composite bonds with a front contact surface of the structural substrate between the contact surfaces thereof. The plastic-wood composite and the structural substrate may be bonded together in one of several ways, such as injection molding, compression molding and thermal or chemical bonding. The resulting plastic part is cooled beneath the softening point of both plastics so that a molecular concentration gradient is formed and an interface between the first and second plastics to bond the first and second plastics by diffusion within a mold cavity of a plastic mold separate from the mold cavity of a vacuum mold which is utilized to vacuum-mold the plastic-wood composite.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.